While out shopping a few days ago at a very unlikely place, Walmart, with my husband and 2 of our children something unexpected happened. We had gone there as we rarely do because we happened to be under a time crunchy for the birthday party the next day for 2 of our children. They had wanted to come to pick out some things for their party but I also needed an area rug for their kids room and wanted to see if they had any ottomans as ours is about falling apart along with a few cleaning items and a few toys my husband wanted to be sure to let the kids pick out for themselves we just ended up at Walmart. We don’t normally shop there because of how the treat their empolyees. We believe in a living wage and that company does not. We also know that to give people such low prices on things it costs humanity in other ways such as the impact on our enviornment and that poor people often far away trully are the ones that pay for those prices. It just isn’t a company we feel morally good about shopping at. Never mind sites like people of walmart that don’t show off the best of our humanity in my opinion, though that site of course is not the fault of the company.
Anyway, with a cat brimming with food and cleaners and toys and party supplies and the kids new rug we left the store. Outside was the darling girl scouts, a group we very much do support in contrast. My husband didn’t have cash on him though so he asked the lady if he could use his Debit card, and she had this cool app on her cell phone. While he was doing that I was standing about 15 feet away with the kids and an older man in a red sweat shirt came over and asked if we are a military family. I said yes, and he handed me $20 and said he wants to buy us a thanksgiving turkey this year. I was stunned and confused, and thanked him as he just walked away. I turned to my husband who had seen none of it and told him he just missed something remarkable. I was fighting back tears about how amazing such a thing was.
It wasn’t as if we looked poor, our cart was overly full. While not our best cloths we didn’t look bad off, and I even had one one and only ever costly coach bag on me (15 year anniversary gift husband got on sale for me! I am a geek, costly pocket books seem crazy to me LOL) Still, this man picked me to come up to and thank like that. Walked back to our old van that was much away from the building and on the opposite side of parking lot than the man went I told my husband what happened. He was clearly taken back too. He did take a second to remark that clearly his hair is in regulation as that could have been the only way the man identified us as a military family. This was funny and had me laughing and crying in our van.
I had bugged my husband the last few days about his hair. He had gotten it cut as he often does, tight on the sides and a bit longer on top, only this time it was left very long on top and the front stuck out like a duck bill I joked or when it stuck up it looked like some kind mohawk! I had doubted it was within regs and I wanted him to go back and get it “fixed” or let me fix it. I even threatened to take care of it when he was asleep! I had to admit, it proved husband right and me wrong!
I spent the rest of the day just in awe of the man doing such a kind thing. He didn’t give a reason. It was some how all the more special because he didn’t add religion to any of it. He didn’t assume we believed the same as he did, if he is even a believer. It was just a kind act done by a kind man. He made our day, our week…. who knows how long we will feel this hope for humanity. It isn’t the money, it could have been a $1 bill and not a $20, it could have been just his kind intention. The spirit of his kindness will live within us. I am so thankful our children saw the man, heard his words, and understood his deed.
Now to pass on his kindness. I think it should be to another military family and I think our children should help us come up with an idea to thank them for thier service and sacrifice.
When we got home our teenager came out to help bring in the bags. She was shocked to see that we went to Walmart on them. She mentioned it and how amazing it was that we went there, and I had to tell her about that was the least amazing part of our day actually!
